Alexei’s eyes grew huge at the sight of her, and he nodded feebly. Kiara turned to face the spider. “All right. Let’s see if you likethis!”
Kiara sent a bolt of blazing yellow light out of her palm. It hit the spider in the face, and the monster squealed, rubbing its eyes frantically. Kiara didn’t stop. She threw bolt of bolt light at the creature. My mouth dropped open. Kiara couldn’t tell Lady Korva off, but she could face a man-eating spider to save a stranger. This girl needed priorities.
Welp, I couldn’t just leave the two of them there, so I figured I might as well join them. I copied Kiara and slid down the ravine, taking my place at her side.
“What are we facing?” I asked.
“It’s ataranticula. One bite of its venom will kill you,” Kiara told me quickly. “They don’t like extreme temperatures.”
“Well, let’s see if we can turn it down, then.” I imagined a blue substance between us and the spider— something that would hurt when you touched it, like dry ice. I was shocked when it appeared before us. The spider put its foot into the substance as an experiment. It screeched and violently drew its limb back immediately. The limb looked frostbitten.
I smiled. Looks like I performed well under pressure.
I figured that would be enough to get it to leave us alone, but guess not, because the spider drew back and fired a large ball of green goo at us from its pinchers. I dove to the side, and Kiara grabbed Alexei, dragging him away from the goo ball before it could touch us. The liquid sputtered and smoldered on the ground, eating away at the stone beneath our feet like some type of acid.
Right. Don’t letthattouch you, either.
Kiara and I had no time to make another plan of defense, because the spider started firing off venom balls like a machine gun. I dodged, and Kiara did her best to yank Alexei out of the way at every possibility.
The spider paused for a moment, as if to refill his venom. Alexei’s head was lolling on his shoulders. “Leave me. You’ll die, too,” he begged weakly.
“We aren’t leaving you behind,” Kiara said firmly. She had him propped up against her, one of his arms thrown over her shoulder. She looked at me. “What do we do?” she whispered.
“I don’t know,” I said. I was still new at this monster-hunting bullshit, and Kiara couldn’t help me when she was busy protecting Alexei. We couldn’t climb up the ravine, either, because we’d jumped in without thinking and were stuck down here. We only had a few seconds before the spider recovered and we’d have to dodge venom bullets again.
“Emma! What are you doing?!” I heard a voice from above. I looked up. Ethan stood at the edge of the ravine, alongside a dark-haired boy I didn’t know.
“I think it’s pretty fucking obvious we’re trying not to get eaten by a giant spider!” I shouted. “So if you wanna help, it’d be greatly appreciated!”
I heard the sound of Ethan swearing, and he said, “Stefan, get them out. I’ll deal with the spider.”
“It’s ataranticula,” Kiara corrected. I rolled my eyes.
There was a rushing sound— the noise of transformation. The dark-haired boy had transformed into an enormous black dragon, who spread his wings so he could drift down the ravine. He landed in front of us, blocking us off from the spider.
Stefan roared, and the spider cowered at the sight of him. There were perks to having a dragon around, I guess. Stefan opened his mouth, and flames came furling out from it, making the temperature in the area rise by ten degrees and causing the spider to flee for its life.
While the spider was attempting to get away from the flames, Ethan jumped off the ravine. He changed into a wolven mid-fall and landed on top of the spider, crushing it to the ground. Ethan raised an open mouth full of fangs before he sank them into the spider’s head, causing black blood to gush out of the monster’s skull.
The spider gave a few involuntary twitches as it died. Ethan stepped off of it once it was dead.
Totally bad-ass.
Ethan advanced toward us, changing back into a human as he did so and wiping his mouth of blood. He looked… really pissed. I couldn’t imagine why.
“The beast is dead. He won’t be trapping Arcanea down here any longer,” Ethan snapped. He shot me a harsh look. Really? What did I do to deserve that?
“What about the venom?” I asked him. “Won’t it kill you?”
“My fangs sank into its brain. I didn’t get any of the venom on me,” Ethan said.
Ew. The taste of brain was probably very unpleasant.
But we still had a problem. Alexei was fading, fast. The cut on his wing had changed as he did, and turned into a large gash that started on his left arm and went all the way down his back. It was pouring blood. Alexei faltered, and Kiara went to catch him.
“On Stefan’s back,” Ethan instructed. He lifted Alexei onto Stefan like it was no problem. By this time, Alexei had passed out. Ethan helped Kiara up. She sat between Stefan’s spikes, holding onto Alexei’s body securely.
Then I felt hands boosting me up. My entire body got warm as I felt Ethan lift me upward and set me on Stefan’s back. He got on behind me and put an arm around my form, holding me tightly while grasping one of the spikes for support.
